Present Your Paper

Get ready to present your paper at a conference. A key part of the research
and review process is presenting and defending your work in front of peers
at a conference.

The first step in getting ready to present your paper is to determine what
key message you want to communicate to your audience. Most conference
presentations are 10-20 minutes long, so you will not have time to present
all the details of your work. The objective of your presentation is to get
people interested in your work, not to explain it to them fully.

Organize your talk with these tips:

1. Begin by stating the purpose or goal of your research. Tell the audience why
your work is important.
2. Provide a very brief literature review. This will give the audience some
context.
3. Move on to the main points of your own research.
4. Conclude by reiterating the importance of your research and emphasizing
the key points.

Tips for Creating Presentation Slides

Remember that your slides do not have to tell the story on their own. Slides
are meant to illustrate your work, not explain it entirely:

 Use graphics where possible. Limit text to phrases and bullet points, rather
than full sentences.
 Once you have drafted your slides, record yourself practicing your talk with
the slides so that you can identify areas for improvement.
 Be sure to stay within your time limit and leave time for questions from the
audience.

A guide to making the most of opportunities to present at conferences

Why present at conferences?
As a graduate researcher, you are encouraged, often required, to present your research at
conferences for several reasons:

 Conferences are an ideal forum for communicating your research to experts in your field. The research
you present can be a completed study, a work-in-progress or a part of your overall project (e.g. a
literature review).
 Attending conferences allows you to stay up to date with developments in your field and to be in
contact with important people
 Conferences inspire your current research. Staying connected and establishing a sense of community
not only helps you with your research ideas, but also sustains motivation for your research throughout
your candidature.
 You can polish your presentation skills by watching effective presenters and, indeed, learn from the
mistakes of less effective presenters.

Participating in conferences
 The process
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 Presentation types
 Networking
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Preparing for conferences

 Ask yourself: what does the audience already know and what do they need to know? For purposes of
length and detail, remember that if people are interested in your research, they will take the
opportunity to read your research paper.
 Formulate a clear structure where, a) your aim is stated in the introduction; b) your points are
explicitly made, linked and supported; and c) your conclusion has a clear ‘take-home’ message.
 Practice the talk and time yourself. Keep the talk within the time limit and be flexible about omitting
some slides if necessary.
 If possible, visit the room you will present in beforehand. Attend a session held in the same room to
identify any potential technical difficulties. If the conference is online, familiarise yourself with
the platform on which you will present.
 A general rule of thumb for the number of presentation slides is one slide per two minutes. Use
visuals where applicable and minimise the amount of text on your slides.

Involving your audience

 Make eye contact
 Project confidence with body posture, voice and movement
 Begin the presentation with a ‘hook’
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 Arrive early
 Be aware of levels of engagement throughout your talk
Presenting your research
During your presentation, make sure you:
State your aim/purpose

Talk about the goals of your research or the purpose of the presentation before discussing
techniques. You must first convince your audience of the importance of your work before
requiring them to tackle the more technical details.

Contextualise your research

Position your study within current literature and methods. This allows you to create
a context for your own work.

Present methods and findings clearly and attractively

Focus on your main approach, the reasons for choosing it, the key results of your
research and their implications. If your audience are interested in the details of your research,
they will ask questions, arrange to chat with you after the talk, or read your paper.

End your talk with a powerful ‘take-home’ message

Emphasise the major points raised in your presentation and highlight the significance of your
research.

Deal with questions effectively

Before the presentation, anticipate likely questions about your research and prepare your
answers. During question time, maintain eye contact with the person asking the question.
Paraphrase their question to ensure that you have understood it correctly and
other members of the audience have heard it.
If you do not have a direct answer, you can acknowledge the point being made and suggest
ways of carrying out further research. You can also ask for their own recommendations and
exchange contact details for follow-up.
Final tip
Conference presentations provide great opportunities for you to communicate your research
to a wide and interested audience, get feedback on your work, learn from other presenters
and broaden your professional network. Preparation and practice are key to getting the most
out of these occasions.
 Tips to give a great academic Conference
Presentation
 

One key part of academic development is developing the skills to give great
conference presentations. These are skills that can be learned; although some
people are naturally talented public speakers, you can develop and train yourself to
be better at presenting your work and ideas. Your ability to present confidently and
effectively will be a key transferrable skill in your professional development.

One of the most important skills you can learn as an early-career researcher is how
to give an effective research talk, lecture, or presentation in front of an audience.
At some point, every academic has to learn how to do this; the earlier, the better.

Most working university academics have to give student lectures on an almost daily
basis.

Standing up in front of a room full of people is a very nerve-wracking experience.

Remember: it’s completely normal to be nervous about putting yourself and your
work on show in front of others.

Learning the skills required to give effective talks and presentations is key to
academic success. Preparation is key:

·      Planning for your presentations will ensure you are able to control
your nerves and do a good job.
·      How you manage yourself during your talks also makes the
difference between success and failure.
·      People form impressions very fast and usually these stick.
·      Follow our guidelines, tips, and tricks to ensure that you do the best
job possible when presenting your work in front of an audience.
 

If you don’t feel you have a natural gift for public speaking, you might use that as
an excuse not to keep working at it. But what most successful speakers will tell you
is that natural talent only takes you so far. The key here? Practice, practice and
more practice. And keep it simple. Many of the best speakers have worked hard at
mastering the skill. They approach public speaking as a craft that can be honed
through dedicated persistence.

 
What techniques can I use to improve my public speaking?

Here are some suggestions we have, based on our experience running workshops
and giving presentations, that you can use to improve your skills. These will work
whether:

·      you’re giving a big presentation at an international conference

·      you’re giving a talk within your own university
·      you’re teaching students, or
·      you’re presenting your research as part of a job interview
 

These techniques can work and help you to improve: practice makes perfect, after
all.

1. Think about the reasons for your presentation

Why are you speaking, and why is your audience there to listen? Are you trying to
educate them, persuade them to take action or simply connect with them? If you
know your goal, you can choose engagement tactics to help achieve it. Academic
researchers will, most often, be writing to get across the results of a new study: so
be clear about your goal. You’Il want to educate and inform your audience
members while demonstrating your expertise and commitment to a specific
industry.

2. Rehearse: Practice makes perfect, especially in a second

language
Did you know that Steve Jobs, one of the founders of Apple Computers, used to
practise all his speeches? He’d think over each movement and word: this kind of
work can pay off! Cast a spell over your audience with a great, well-rehearsed talk.

Indeed, if you put the time in and rehearse your talks you’ll be a lot more
comfortable and more likely to achieve your goals. What about time, though? Some
academic speakers literally make a script, practise that script again and again until
it feels natural and seems natural to the audience. Is this worthwhile? Here’s a
good rule of thumb: If an opportunity is low-stakes, spend less time on it. If it’s
high-stakes, carve out the time on your calendar to practise until you get it right.
You don’t want to walk into that next major academic conference to give a keynote
speech and just ‘see how it goes’.
 

A key tip for success when giving talks is Organisation: how to identify the key
message of your presentation to ensure that your audience remembers you and
walks away thinking ‘Wow! That was a really interesting talk’. What sorts of content
do you need for a time-limited conference presentation? How many slides should
you use for a 15-minute talk and what sorts of things need to be included? Content,
presentation, and structure are some of the keys to delivering an effective talk.

3. Put on a show and don’t let your slides take centre stage
Truly great speeches live in the intersection of education and theatre. What
theatrical elements can you inject into your presentation to make it memorable?
For example, even if you practise until you can give the speech in your sleep, still
leave room for improvisation on stage. Your presentation will sound more natural.

Don’t fall into the ‘death by Powerpoint’ trap. We’ve all attended talks where the
slides are bad, hard to read, poorly constructed, distracting, or just plain terrible.
We’ll teach you how to easily design and create effective slides that sell your
message and are engaging and interesting for your audience. Why not consider
infographics or a conference poster as eye-catching alternatives? Our services can
help you develop, design, and produce alternatives.

Nerves are normal; we’ll teach you some tricks to overcome stagefright so that you
appear confident and self-assured in front of your audience. We’ll also show you
how practising some parts of your presentation is a must to ensure success while
improvisation in other places can also be good to ensure engagement with your
audience.

Nobody has ever been truly inspired by a slide deck. Instead, your presentation
should rely on your words, i.e. the story you’re telling. But if your presentation
must include slides, prepare them after writing your speech. You might find that
visual elements won’t improve your presentation after all. Plus, using a slide deck
as a crutch could be a colossal mistake as technology can fail! We’ve all attended
talks where the speaker has to spend loads of time at the start fiddling with the
projector and trying to transfer their slides across to the ‘home’ computer. Try to
get to your venue earlier and make sure your slides work well when projected onto
a screen! (not just the screen of your computer).

Some people have a natural talent for public speaking. But for the rest of us, it
takes practice and smart tactics to become effective and memorable speakers.